Clive Goodman (pictured) covered the royal family for UK tabloid News of the World until 2007, when he was convicted of phone hacking and sent to prison. Now, a newly released letter from Goodman says that—surprise—everyone at the paper knew about phone hacking, which was routine.

The Parliamentary committee investigating the phone hacking scandal released a letter that Goodman sent to the paper in 2007 to protest his dismissal following his conviction. Among his arguments:

His actions were carried out with the "full knowledge and support" of unnamed executives.

Other staff members were "carrying out the same illegal procedures."

The practice of phone hacking was "widely discussed in the daily editorial conference, until explicit reference to it was banned by the editor." That editor would be Andy Coulson, who went on to become the spokesman for David Cameron before being forced to step down due to this scandal.

Goodman also says the paper's legal manager and editor told him that he could return to his job "if I did not implicate the paper or any of its staff in my mitigation plea." They set him up as a "lone rogue reporter" to take the fall, in other words, and then turned their backs on him.

And there you have it. Of course, how can you really trust a dirtbag who worked for News of the World
, right? Would you take his word over... the editors of News of the World
?